addressing romney's tax plan, obama said romney's effort to cut taxes for the wealthy would be to the gutting of essential government programs. box for 18 months he has been running on this tax plan. five weeks before the election, now he is saying his big, bold idea is, "never mind." the fact is, if you are lowering the rates the way you described, governor, then it is not possible to come up with enough deductions and loopholes that only affect high-income individuals to avoid either raising the deficit or burdening the middle class. it is math. >> mitt romney challenged obama's assertion that his tax plan would cost the country $five trillion in revenue, the knowledge to cut spending on government programs will drastically increasing funding for the military. in a jab that quickly exploded on twitter car romney told moderator jim lehrer he would cut funds to employer pbs, despite his love for certain sesame street character. >> i am sorry, jim, i'm going to stop the subsidy to pbs. i love big bird. i like you, too, but i am not one keep spending money on things to borrow money from